Hope is Beyond

Sunday Collect – March 20, 2022

John Butler – Cross Cuts III

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. —Albert Einstein

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COLLECT

A recap/summary of the week’s prayers and contemplations

TUESDAY
We witnessed hope in the words of Desmond Tutu and Saint Augustine. 

WEDNESDAY
We prayed the Beatitudes of Jesus with William Barclay’s Blesseds of Jesus. 

THURSDAY
We discovered hope in the cosmos. 

FRIDAY
We sang a song of hope with India Arie. 

SATURDAY 
We reviewed hope throughout our week. 

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PRAXIS

I do so love the cosmos. I particularly love the fact that we are made of stardust. It is something that gives me great hope. In fact, for me, stardust is message of hope that reminds me there is meaning to life, and Creator who gave us life.

If you haven’t already done so, find something in the cosmos that you feel is a message of hope. Will it be the magnificent expansiveness of light years that gives you a message of hope? Or maybe it will be the evolutionary act of supernovas, or maybe the vast mystery of a black hole. 

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THE LORD’S PRAYER

By James Burklo

Dear One, closer to us than our own hearts, farther from us than the most distant star, you are beyond naming.

May your powerful presence become obvious not only in the undeniable glory of the sky, but also in the seemingly base and common processes of the earth.

Give us what we need, day by day, to keep body and soul together, because clever as you have made us, we still owe our existence to you.

We recognize that to be reconciled with you, we must live peaceably and justly with other human beings, putting hate and bitterness behind us.

We are torn between our faith in your goodness and our awareness of the evil in your creation, so deliver us from the temptation to despair.

Yours alone is the universe and all its majesty and beauty.

So it is, Amen.